A blog about genealogy and thoughts about the various roots and branches of my family tree as well as the times in which my ancestors lived.Included are the West, White,and McFarland families.WARNING:DO NOT TAKE ALL OF MY FAMILY RECORDS AS GOSPEL. ALWAYS CONFIRM YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

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Monday, February 29, 2016

As I wrote in my previous post, I now turn to the ancestors of my 3x great grandmother Lucy (Stowe) Coburn. Her Stowe family line extends back to John Stow who arrived jn Massachusetts
Bay Colony in 1634 and settled in Roxbury. At that time Roxbury was not part of Boston but a
separate small town, as many of the neighborhoods of modern day Boston once were. John appears
to have been a clerk and was rewarded with a grant of land for his services putting the
laws of the colony into a written record.

I found this interesting article in Googlebooks, written over a century ago for the publication of
the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society:

"John Stow, according to the Rev. John Elliott's Record of Church Members, arrived in New England the 17th of the 3rd month anno 1634. He brought with him his wife and six children: Thomas, Elizabeth, John, Nathaniel, Samuel and Thankful. Elizabeth Stow, the wife of John Stow, she was a very godly matron, a blessing not only to her family but to all the church & when she had lead a christian conversation a few years among us she dyed & left a good savor behind her.Through the publication in the New England Register, page 58, January, 1912, we have the records of the Parish of All Saints Church, Biddenden, Co. Kent, between 1558 and 1638, so far as they relate to the family of Bigge and among them is that of the marriage 1608 of John Stowe and Elizabeth Bigge 13 September.In the ship Elizabeth which sailed 9 April and arrived in New England 17 May, 1634, bringing John Stow and his family, we also find his mother-in-law Rachel Biggs and, despite the fact that Mr. Waters in his Gleanings has given as much relating to the Bigge or Biggs familyf, no light has ever been thrown upon the maiden name of Rachel, so that it was with much satisfaction that, among the Bigge entries of marriages in St. Mildred's Church, Tenterden, Co. Kent, published in the same number of the Register, was found 1583—John Bigge of Cranbrooke and Rachel Martin of Lidde, 14 September. In the McDonoughHackstaff Genealogy it is stated that Rachel Bigg was born in or before 1579 and in view of the date of her marriage, it would appear that it was certainly before but, because of a mistake in the list of passengers on the Elizabeth, we cannot tell her age when she landed. In this list it is given as 6 , which may have been meant for 69 perhaps if she was about 17 when married.Rachel Bigg made her will 17 November, 1646 and it was attested by Richard Peacocke, one of the witnesses, 30 June, 1647, her "sonne in law" John Stowe being Executor, so that Savage is in error in stating that John died in 1643. It would appear that he sold his land in Roxbury in 1648 and removed to Concord probably late in the year, as he made an Inventory of the estate of John Levins of Roxbury 30 August, 1648. He probably later removed to Middleton, Conn., and died there. His son Thomas went to Middleton in 1659 and Samuel removed there in 1652.Henry W. Belknap."Salem, Mass., Feb., 1912."-p118The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume 44, New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1913 - New York, New York

I'm descended from John and Rachel Stow's son Nathaniel, who married Martha Metcalf.